This fall there was a mad rush at our house to get the garden cleaned up for the winter. Fur trapping season was in full swing, we were still canning and freezing vegetables whenever we found a spare hour, hockey season was starting for my oldest, and life felt like it was going by way too fast. Now that we have some snow on the ground, the ponds and creeks are locked up in ice, I've had a few moments to sit back and reflect on this past gardening season. I realize most die-hard gardeners start planning for next year about 2.2 seconds after they've picked their last onion, so I'm probably late to this game.
Reflections...
Summer 2012 was a record year for our family, as far as the value of the produce we grew. The amount of food that came out of 700 square feet of raised beds really was a surprise. The really amazing part of it is that I know I can probably improve that by about 25%, after seeing where I didn't make ideal use of the space I had. There really is no substitute for experience when it comes to intensive planting.
Despite all my efforts, I wasn't able to make enough compost for next season. I'm going to have to work even harder on that next year, probably by building a second compost bin. Surprisingly, a 4x4x4 compost bin filled to the brim, turned, and filled again just doesn't make as much compost as you'd expect. At this point, when I think I have enough, I'll double it and that should be closer to enough.
There is no fertilizer on the planet better than chicken poop, as far as bang for the buck. It's more or less free and holy smokes do plants grow when treated with it. Not just any chicken poop. It needs to be composted or rotted down first. About a month seems to be the sweet spot. First thing next spring I'm going to shovel all the chicken poop I can find into a barrel, mix it with a few shovels full of dirt, a squirt of water and let it sit. Right about the time the growing season hits its stride, I'll have a great supply of awesome fertilizer to side dress with.
I grew lots of things that are nice to have fresh, but just aren't worth the effort and space. One of these, and I know this is probably some kind of heresy, is salad greens. Now I know they don't take up much space, and I love a fresh salad as much as anyone, but I don't want to commit garden space to something that I can't store for more than a couple days. Next year, greens will be grown in containers on the back deck. Along with this comes a general shift in focus away from growing all the things I love to eat to growing things that I will still have in January. Not all, I'm still going to grow greens and melons, etc, but we're going to commit more space to things that we can freeze, can, or just store for the winter. This means more tomatoes, squash, potatoes, onions, peas, beans, etc, and less of the stuff that just doesn't store well.
Next year...
I've added 7 new raised beds, expanding the total area of raised beds to 1400 square feet. I've also started preparing an additional 1900 square feet of new garden that will be shared between corn, potatoes, winter squash/pumpkins, and melons. I don't really know how I'm going to prep this soil in the spring, as much of it is still in sod. Double digging 1900 square feet of ground just isn't going to happen, so I'll probably get out the tractor and tiller and try to work some chicken poop and some compost, but in reality that soil just isn't going to produce the way my established raised beds to. I'm still looking for ideas that don't include buying a ton of fertilizer or compost to add to it.
More chickens. Our hens have an irritating habit of stopping laying for no perceptible reason. Wyandottes are great birds, but I see myself adding 6 Rhode Island Reds. I'm not sure that this will fix the problem of periodic stoppages to egg production, but at least it might help me find out if it's something I'm doing or if my current birds are just fickle. Plus, more chicken poop!
Last year's sweet corn patch was in ground that had never been planted into anything but grass. Surprisingly, I didn't have much trouble controlling the grass in that patch with some hand weeding and a hoe, but HOLY MOLY CATNIP! I'm not sure how, but the amount of catnip that grew over the summer was kind of astounding. Mostly for other reasons, though, that area will be included in a chicken paddock, including a new mobile coop I'm building out of an old trailer frame. That will allow me to move them around throughout the year, especially bringing them closer to the house next winter where water and electricity are easier to access.
More coming in part two of this, later this winter...
